"A little higher," I called. I was in a seat swinging above the deck. You see, we had broken one of the lazy jacks and I was helping Daddy repair it. Lazy jacks are lines on the mast and boom that make the sail fold nicely onto the boom as it comes down. My job was to thread the lazy jack through an eye two-thirds up the mast.
I had put my harness on and applied a layer of sunscreen. As
I walked out of the cockpit, I saw Daddy fastening the seat to a halyard to
pull me up the mast. The halyard is at the top of the mast and is normally used
for raising a sail. Today, it would raise me. Daddy carefully tucked me onto
the seat and clipped my harness so if I fell out I would just dangle there and
not fall and hit the deck where I would break every bone in my body. Then Daddy
started hoisting me up the mast. Finally I made it to the eye. I threaded the
line through and Daddy started to lower me.
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| This picture is not from today but it gives you a sense of what it looks like when I am wearing a harness, sitting in the seat, and working on the mast. |
On the way down, I needed to put the lazy jack on the other side
of the spreader. "A little higher," I called. I needed to sit on the
spreader so that I had something to hold onto while threading the lazy jack
line. When I reached the deck I climbed
out of the harness. That is how I helped. I put the lazy jack through the eye.
Plus the up the mast part was fun. – Jack Rabbit
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